January, igil. 



American ^Bee Journal 



a camera to take my photograph. Fort- 

 unately, I had on my bee-veil, which is 

 made like a bag, so I walked to the 

 kitchen (I was afraid that the sight of 

 me would startle my mother). With 

 the help of our cook I turned my veil 

 inside out, securing the bees quite 

 safely, and then I drove them without 

 more trouble into the hive, which I had 

 made ready for them. — Irish Bee Jour- 

 nal. 



Where a Woman " Knows Bees " 



' Dear Miss Wilson:— Your excellent and 

 timely article in the last number of the 

 American Bee Journal, "Why Women 

 Should Know Bees." has prompted me to 

 write you this letter. 



My wife and I were married 5 years ago 

 last June. We live on a small farm, and at 

 present have 30 colonies of Italian bees. We 

 have one little blue-eycd. curly-headed 

 daughter, whose name is " Alice." and she 

 is the sunshine of our home. When she 

 gets hungry, she wants bread and milk and 

 honey. 



Well, when we were married my wife had 

 never seen any one handling bees, and of 

 course she was very much afraid ot them at 

 first, but she took great interest in them, 

 and in a surprisingly short time she was able 

 to handle them as well as I. 



Two years after our marriage I was taken 

 sick; had an operation for gallstones and 

 stomach trouble. I was in the liospital 4 

 times, and during all this time my bees 

 were taken care of the same as if I had 

 taken care of them myself. I did not re- 

 cover from my sickness, and the doctors 

 tell me now I have an incurable spinal dis- 

 ease, and that I will never walk again, as I 

 am completely paralyzed in my limbs. Of 

 course, being a young man (only 33 years old; 

 the future does not look very bright for us. 

 but how thankful I am that the good Lord 

 has (jiven me such a dear wife! Were it not 

 for her. of course bee-keeping would be out 

 of the question for me. I have a wheel chair, 

 and whenever we have important work to 

 do. she takes me out to the apiary, and I do 

 the " bossing" while she does the work. 

 And how we enjoy it! 



We got 2700 pounds of fine honey this 

 year, in spite of the awful drouth we had 

 here. When people visit us in our humble 

 little home, or come to get honey, and see me 

 in my helpless condition, they say. "How 

 nice it is that your wife can take care of 

 your bees." Of course, no one can appre- 

 ciate it more than I do. 



Together we study, and plan and build 

 air-castles, and she is just as anxious to get 

 the bee-papers as I am. 



Should it be the Lord's will that I should 

 be taken away from her soon, she can now 

 successfully run the apiary herself. 



As I suffer more or less pain all the time, 

 and lie on my cot most of the time. I hope 

 you will excuse me for writing this letter 

 with a lead-pencil. 



I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a 

 Happy New Year. G. A. Barbisch. 



La Crescent, Minn., Dec. 13. 1910. 



Thanks to our afflicted brother, not 

 only for this interesting story of tri- 

 umph over difficulties that would crush 

 many another, but for so apt an illustra- 

 tion of the advantage of having women 

 — especially wives — ready to carry on 

 the work of bee-keeping in case of 

 need. And the need may come very 

 suddenly at any time. The sympathy 

 of all will go out to this brother and 

 his plucky helpmeet. 



What Became of the Honey ? 



Ye editor inquires where the honey 

 comes in — or on — in the Marengo way 

 of preparing "milk and honey" and 

 bread, as given last month. 



It was supposed that when that recipe 

 left Marengo a liberal allowance of 

 honey of best quality was spread on 

 the bread before the cream was poured 

 on. Of course it might have happened 

 that the honey was left out, but then it 



would not be such a very strange thing 

 that Uncle Sam might have been over- 

 persuaded by such a tempting morsel 

 to do a little filching on the way. In- 

 deed, ye editor himself is not entirely 

 above suspicion. It would not be en- 

 tirely out of the range of possibilities 

 for the honey to have mysteriously dis- 

 appeared after getting into his hands, 

 and before getting into the hands of 

 the printer. At any rate, it is well 



known that ye editor has a very, very 

 sweet tooth. — [Only the fact that the 

 conductor of this department is a lady — 

 and such an estimable lady — prevents 

 us making a tart reply — one like the 

 recipe that was given last month — with 

 no honey in — or on — it. We plead 

 guilty to the charge of having a honey- 

 tooth. But as to "filching honey" — 

 well, it is supposedly a lady who inti- 

 mated that, so we let it pass. — G. W. Y.] 



Conducted by Louis IL Scuoi.i . New Braunfels, Tex. 



A Season's Work in the Apiaries for 

 Honey-Production 



I have already begun my new sea- 

 son's work, and I expect to do some 

 great things this year. To give the 

 readers of this Journal the benefit of 

 my year's management as it is carried 

 out in my numerous apiaries and ex- 

 tensive business, I have decided to give 

 in each issue the work that I am doing. 

 Since this work is always ahead of the 

 work in the most of our country, the 

 readers who will be interested in these 

 articles may be able to try some of the 

 things that I do. 



While I spend the most of the win- 

 ter-time (especially when the weather 

 outside is disagreeable) in the house, 

 either writing or reading, I am also 

 spending a great deal of my time in 

 planning the season's work. This 

 everybody should do. Without some 

 definite plans no work can be accom- 

 plished the most satisfactorily. For 

 this reason I know just what I will 

 need for my increase, the amount of 

 new supplies needed for this, the su- 

 pers and foundation needed for the 

 honey crop, etc., so much so that all 

 these things have already been ordered 

 and will be here soon, to be gotten to- 

 gether in readiness for the time when 

 they are needed. This will save a lot 

 of worry later on when supplies are so 

 hard to get, and when we might lose 

 part or all of a fine crop of honey be- 

 cause the goods could not be gotten in 

 time. 



There are many advantages in get- 

 ting the supplies in early, besides those 

 mentioned above. The early-order- 

 discount is attractive to me; the goods 

 can be shipped out when there is no 

 rush on, aad they are not so long de- 

 layed en route, or we need not fear 

 that they will be, hence the delays will 

 not be felt as much as later in the year. 

 Then, it is much better to put the new 

 supplies up at leisure, when there is 

 nothing else pressing, and when labor 

 can be had much cheaper. 



When we have the beautiful warm 

 days I feel as if I could not remain in- 

 doors, and it is then that I take drives 

 to some of the apiaries to examine the 

 colonies so that some that are in need 

 may not perish. Such as are found are 

 helped with a few combs of sealed 

 honey from the stronger or heavier 

 ones, taking care not to keep the hives 



open too long and molest the bees too 

 much. 



I have described my hives — the shal- 

 low divisible brood-chamber kind — in 

 previous articles, but since my season's 

 work is confined mostly to this kind I 

 shall try to acquaint the readers with 

 this part of my work briefly in next 

 month's issue. Be it remembered, 

 however, that I will not devote all of 

 my time to the shallow hives and their 

 manipulations alone, for I have had 

 years of experience with other kinds, 

 and at the present time I have at one 

 of my series of apiaries hundreds of 

 the regular Langstroth hives in use. 

 But I manage them somewhat differ- 

 ently from the old way, and will tell 

 how I do this so that I make practically 

 divisible brood-chamber hives out of 

 these, and manage them very much as 

 I do the shallow hives for the surplus 

 honey. 



I hope that I may be able to make 

 my year's management for honey-pro- 

 duction of interest to all. 



How I Sell Bulk-Comb Honey 



Going after trade is one thing — get- 

 ting the trade is another. This is a 

 subject upon which I have spent much 

 thought for more than a dozen years. 

 There are various ways of selling a 

 good crop of honey, and it remains for 

 the bee-keeper to decide which way 

 will best suit him and his circumstances. 



One of the best ways for the inex- 

 perienced — the bee-keeper whose busi- 

 ness talent is not developed — when he 

 has a crop of honey to dispose of, is to 

 sell it direct to one of the large honey- 

 dealers who buy to ship out to their 

 customers in different parts of the 

 country. In this way he has less 

 trouble and worry with the disposal of 

 the crop of honey, gets his money, and 

 can then turn his attention to some- 

 thing else, or begin on his next year's 

 preparations to produce another crop, 

 to be sold again in the same way. And 

 so this can be done from year to year. 



Of course, in this way the price re- 

 ceived will be somewhat lower than if 

 he were able to ship the honey out 

 himself, but he can well aflford this, 

 leaving the other work for the large 

 dealer to do, while he himself devotes 

 all of his time and attention to the 

 keeping of the bees and producing the 

 crops of honey. Especially would this 



